THE  CHURCH 
D  HER  TEACHING 


[THE  CHURCH  AND  HER  TEACHING 

ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  IN  CORNWALL 


BY  Tip  REV. 

CHARLES  H.  ROBINSON,  M.A. 


■.CELLOR  OF  TRt! 


WITH  AX  INTRODUCTION 


THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  TRURO 


LONDON 

LONGMANS,  GREEN,  &  CO. 

AND  NEW  YORK  :  15  EAST  16th  STREET 

l893 

All  rights  reserved 


CONTENTS 


Introduction  by  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Truro  .  . 
Author's  Preface  

r. 

AUTHORITY  IN  MATTERS  OF  FAITH— 
WHENCE  IS  IT  DERIVED? 

"  They  received  the  Word  with  all  readiness  of  mind,  and 
searched  the  Scriptures  daily,  whether  those  things 
were  so."— Acts  xvii.  n  

II. 

THE  CHURCH'S  FIRST  LESSON-BOOK. 

"  I  have  loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love  .  .  .  for  I 
am  a  Father."— Jer.  xxxi.  3,  9  

III. 

THE  TEACHING  TESTED. 

"In  one  Spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into  one  body." — 
I  Cor.  xii.  13  (R.V.)  


vi 


Contents. 


IV. 

OBJECTIONS  TO  THE  CHURCH. 

PAGE 

"  Ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk 
therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls." — Jer. 
«•  16  33 


V. 

DIFFERENCES  WITHIN  THE  CHURCH. 

"  Christ  also  loved  the  Church,  and  gave  Himself  for  it." 

— Eph.  v.  25  &g 


VI. 

UNITY— IS  IT  POSSIBLE?    HOW  MAY  IT 
BEST  BE  ATTAINED? 

"  I  pray  ...  for  them  also  which  shall  believe  on  Me 
,       ...  that  they  all  may  be  one  .  .  .  that  the  world 

may  believe." — St.  John  xvii.  20,  2 1  58 


INTRODUCTION 


BY 

THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  TRURO. 

I  heartily  introduce  this  book  with  a  few 
words  of  commendation,  partly  from  my 
high  esteem  of  the  author's  work  in  my 
diocese,  and  the  missionary  heroism  which 
is  about  to  take  him  to  the  sources  of  the 
Niger,  and  partly  from  my  sympathy  with 
the  idea  that  animates  this  book. 

For  the  nearest  reserves  of  the  strength 
of  the  Church  lie  in  the  ingathering  of  the 
sons  and  daughters  who  have  left  her — 
those  many  saintly  souls  who  are  working 
alongside  of  her,  yet  outside  her  com- 
munion. We  cannot  afford  to  miss  the 
sympathy  and  partnership  of  these  men  ; 


viii 


Introduction. 


they  have  much  grace  to  give  us,  and  the 
Church  of  their  fathers  must  surely  have 
yet  more  to  give  them.  Both  of  us  have 
suffered  enough  from  the  kingdom  divided, 
while  neither  can  the  world  believe,  nor 
ourselves  be  perfected,  until  our  oneness 
be  recovered. 

Let  repentance  be  ours  ;  for,  if  we  had 
not  slept,  they  had  not  wandered,  nor  the 
enemy  sown  so  many  tares  in  the  Church. 

And,  when  they  return  to  their  old 
home,  they  will  find  it  in  a  very  different 
condition  to  that  in  which  they  left  it. 
They  will  find  in  her  altars  and  pulpits 
the  graces  they  left  her  to  seek,  and  the 
strength  and  the  tenderness  which  she 
has  inherited  from  those  whom  her  Lord 
has  made  so  tender  and  strong. 

Then  the  faith  of  Christ  our  Lord  will 
be  powerful  against  the  things  that  make 
for  evil ;  the  vices  of  England  will  have  to 
reckon  with  a  united  Christendom ;  our 
strength  will  be  spent  no  more  against 


Introduction. 


ix 


each  other,  but  it  will  increase  by  use 
against  the  enemies  of  God  and  man. 

My  friend,  who  has  written  these  pages, 
has  helped  the  reunion  of  English  Chris- 
tendom by  showing  the  Church  in  its  love 
and  zeal  all  through  the  outlying  villages 
of  Cornwall,  as  well  as  by  his  words  in  the 
pulpit  of  the  Cathedral. 

May  the  grace  that  makes  men  to  be  of 
one  mind  in  the  household  of  God  fulfil 
his  words  in  the  hearts  of  his  readers  ! 

JOHN  TRURON. 

Truro, 

Easter,  1893. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 


The  following  addresses,  which  were  delivered 
in  Truro  Cathedral  during  the  Friday  evenings 
in  Lent,  are  an  attempt  to  suggest  in  a  popular 
form  the  essential  points  of  difference  between 
the  teaching  of  the  Church  and  that  of  all  sects 
and  denominations  outside  her.  The  fourth 
address  more  especially  deals  with  difficulties 
suggested  to  the  author  during  an  open-air 
mission  tour  which  it  was  his  privilege  to  make 
in  Cornwall  during  the  summers  of  189 1  and 
1892.  Apart  from  the  directly  evangelistic 
work  which  it  was  the  primary  object  of  the 
mission  to  accomplish,  the  close  contact  with 
the  people  into  which  those  who  took  part  in  it 
were  brought,  afforded  an  almost  unique  oppor- 
tunity of  gaining  a  real  insight  into  the  causes 
which  have  resulted  in  the  alienation  from  the 


xii 


Author  s  Preface. 


Church  of  their  forefathers  of  so  large  a  portion 
of  the  population  of  Cornwall.  The  author 
and  his  companions,  dressed  simply  in  cassock 
and  cape,  walked  two  and  two  from  village  to 
village,  holding  open-air  preaching  services  in 
each,  with  the  approval  of  the  vicar  of  the 
parish,  and  with  a  direct  commission  from  the 
Bishop  of  the  diocese.  At  the  close  of  the 
evening  services  they  were  accustomed  to  ap- 
peal to  their  audiences  to  offer  them  food  and 
lodging  for  the  night  ;  and  whilst  accepting  the 
hospitality  of  their  hosts,  who  were  in  many 
cases  Nonconformists,  they  were  able  to  remove 
not  a  few  prejudices  against  the  Church,  which 
had  arisen  through  ignorance  as  to  the  real 
nature  of  her  teaching.  The  evident  failure  of 
the  Church  in  so  many  country  districts  to 
reach  those  who  are  alienated  from  her,  either 
through  indifference  or  prejudice,  together  with 
the  encouraging  reception  accorded  to  the 
efforts  above  referred  to,  would  seem  to  point 
to  the  desirability  of  an  organized  attempt 
being  made  to  inaugurate  work  on  similar  lines 


Authors  Preface.  xiii 

elsewhere.  Should  it  ever  be  found  possible 
to  re-establish  in  England  an  order  of  preach- 
ing friars,  whose  object  should  be  to  supplement 
the  work  of  the  parochial  clergy  by  open-air 
and  other  preaching,  and  who,  starting  from 
some  common  centre,  such  as  a  restored 
monastery  would  so  naturally  afford,  should 
rely  for  their  support  upon  the  hospitality  of 
the  people,  it  seems  probable  that  a  revival  of 
religion  might  be  thereby  promoted  in  no  way 
less  remarkable  than  that  of  the  thirteenth 
century. 

A  further  need,  which  appears  to  the  author 
to  be  of  even  more  pressing  importance  in 
Cornwall  at  the  present  time,  is  this.  There 
are  many  country  parishes  containing  outlying 
hamlets  distant  from  the  parish  church  from 
one  to  three  miles,  in  which  no  Church  service 
is  held  from  the  beginning  of  the  year  to  the 
end.  The  income  attached  to  the  parish  is 
perhaps  £120  or  £150  per  annum,  no  further 
support  of  any  kind  being  obtainable  either  for 
a  curate  or  a  lay-reader.    The  only  religious 


XIV 


Authors  Preface. 


services  which  are  held  in  these  hamlets  are 
conducted  by  Dissenting  "  local  preachers,"  who 
are  plain  working  men,  and  receive  no  re- 
muneration. It  was  strongly  impressed  upon 
the  author,  during  his  peregrinating  mission 
work,  that  the  Church  could  take  no  more 
effective  step  to  recover  the  influence  which 
she  has  lost,  than  by  organizing  a  band  of 
"  Church  local  preachers,"  who  should  be  com- 
municant members  of  the  Church,  but  should 
be  simple  working  men,  willing  to  give  their 
services  without  payment,  and  to  preach  in 
cottages,  barns,  or  schoolrooms  throughout  a 
given  circuit,  which  should  include  five  or  six 
adjacent  parishes.  The  success  which  has 
attended  the  partial  realization  of  such  a 
scheme  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bishop  Auck- 
land, would  seem  to  point  to  the  possibility 
of  developing  the  same  on  a  far  wider  scale 
such  as  that  suggested. 

The  publication  of  these  addresses  is  in 
part  due  to  a  desire  expressed  by  several 
of  those  who  heard  them   that  they  might 


Author s  Preface.  xv 

have  them  in  a  permanent  form  ;  in  part 
also  to  the  fact  that  they  may  not  impro- 
bably be  the  last  addresses  that  the  author 
will  have  the  opportunity  of  giving  in  Corn- 
wall, as  he  is  about  to  leave  England  in 
order  to  attempt  a  journey  of  missionary  ex- 
ploration across  the  Sahara  Desert  and  the 
Western  Soudan.  The  proposed  journey  will 
be  in  connection  with  the  recently  formed 
Hausa  Association,  to  which  will  be  given  any 
profits  arising  from  the  sale  of  this  volume. 
The  author  would  desire  to  express  his  in- 
debtedness for  help  received  from  his  brother, 
Rev.  A.  W.  Robinson,  especially  in  the  first 
three  addresses. 

C.  H.  R. 

Truro, 

Easter,  1893. 


1. 


AUTHORITY  IN  MATTERS  OF  FAITH 
—WHENCE  IS  IT  DERIVED? 

"They  received  the  Word  with  all  readiness  of  mind,  and 
searched  the  Scriptures  daily,  whether  those  things  were  so." — 
Acts  xvii.  11. 

The  object  which  we  shall  try  to  keep  before 
us  during  these  addresses  on  the  Friday  even- 
ings in  Lent  is  suggested  to  us  by  the  words 
which  we  have  just  read.  We  shall  try  to 
consider  some  of  the  most  distinctive  points  in 
the  teaching  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  order 
to  place,  as  it  were,  in  the  hands  of  a  Church- 
man a  simple  but  intelligent  answer  to  the 
question,  "  Why  should  I  as  a  matter  of  prin- 
ciple remain  in  the  Church  of  England  in  pre- 
ference to  attaching  myself  to  one  of  the  now 
almost  countless  sects  outside  that  Church?" 
We  shall  earnestly  endeavour  to  avoid  ap- 

B 


2 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


proaching  the  subject  in  any  spirit  of  contro- 
versy, our  object  being  not  to  convert  those 
outside  the  Church,  but  to  help  those  already 
in  it  to  know  the  certainty  of  those  things 
wherein  they  have  been  instructed.  The  object 
which  we  desire  to  set  before  us  is  a  definitely 
practical  one — we  desire  to  find  out  what  there 
is  in  the  distinctive  teaching  of  our  Church 
which  should  be  of  real  help  to  us  in  our 
struggle  against  sin. 

The  first  of  the  subjects  which  we  propose  to 
consider  is,  "  Authority  in  matters  of  faith  ;  "  or, 
in  other  words,  the  source  from  which  we  obtain 
that  which  we  believe.  There  is  a  well-known 
statement,  by  the  late  Dean  Hook,  to  which  I 
would  like  to  draw  your  attention,  "  We  receive 
our  religion  from  tJie  Church,  we  prove  it  from 
the  Bible."  Is  this  a  statement  which  as 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  we  should 
be  prepared  to  accept  or  indorse  ?  Before 
giving  a  definite  answer  to  this  question,  let  us 
consider  the  statement  in  its  separate  clauses. 

"  We  receive  our  religion"  This,  at  any  rate, 
no  one  would  be  prepared  to  deny  ;  our  religion 
is  not  the  result  of  our  own  invention  or  dis- 
covery ;  it  existed  long  before  we  were  born. 


Aiithority  in  Matters  of  Faith.  3 


We  receive  our  religion,  then ;  but  whence,  or 
from  whom  ?  "  From  the  Bible,"  many  voices 
would  seem  to  reply.  Is  this  so  ?  Had  you  no 
knowledge  whatever  of  religion  until  you  were 
old  enough  to  read  the  Bible  or  to  understand 
it  when  read  to  you  ?  Surely  not ;  you  received 
your  religion  at  the  earliest  dawn  of  your  con- 
scious life,  from  your  mother,  from  the  hymns 
which  you  learnt  or  listened  to,  from  your 
clergyman  or  minister.  "  But  mine  is  the 
religion  of  the  Bible,"  you  will  say  ;  "  I  can  soon 
prove  this."  Quite  so,  but  that  is  a  different 
point  altogether.  You  received  it,  notwithstand- 
ing, not  directly  from  the  Bible,  but  from  some 
human  teacher  or  teachers. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  the  next  clause.  "  We  prove 
it  from  the  Bible"  Here,  too,  all  are  agreed. 
The  Calvinist  says,  "  Read  the  Bible  and  you 
will  become  a  Calvinist ; "  the  Baptist,  "  Read 
the  Bible  and  you  will  become  a  Baptist ;  "  the 
Presbyterian,  "  Read  the  Bible  and  you  will 
become  a  Presbyterian."  Nor  are  these  all.  In 
185 1  there  were  ninety-five  so-called  Protestant 
denominations  ;  to-day  the  number  is  just  short 
of  three  hundred,  nor  is  there  any  likelihood  of 
the  number  decreasing.    What  are  we  to  say  to 


4 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


this  fact  ?  What  are  those  outside  saying  ? 
The  atheist  points  the  finger  of  scorn  at  the 
ever-increasing  number  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred, and  says,  "  When  you  Christians  have 
agreed  as  to  the  meaning  of  your  Bible,  we 
shall  be  prepared  to  listen."  The  Romanist 
obtains  an  unanswerable  argument  in  support 
of  his  own  system  of  teaching,  as  he  points  to 
these  three  hundred  sects,  and  says,  "  This  is  the 
result  of  your  Protestantism  !  "  The  practical 
and  obvious  result  is  that  the  followers  of  Christ 
to-day  are  like  the  fragments  of  a  disorganized 
army,  the  separate  battalions  of  which  refuse 
to  conform  to  any  single  system  or  to  adopt 
any  uniform  plan. 

In  St.  John  xvii.  20,  Christ  foretells  that  the 
exact  opposite  to  this,  viz.  the  unity  of  the 
Christian  Church,  would  be  the  condition  of  the 
world's  conversion.  "  I  pray  for  them  also  which 
shall  believe  on  Me  .  .  .  that  they  all  may  be 
one  .  .  .  that  the  world  may  believe  .  .  ." 
Here,  and  by  no  uncertain  hint,  we  have  ex- 
plained to  us  the  cause  of  the  comparative 
failure  of  modern  Christianity. 

What,  then,  is  the  remedy  to  be  suggested  ? 

There  are  two  remedies  on  which  I  wish  to 


Authority  in  Matters  of  Faith.  5 

say  a  few  words  to-night.  The  first  is  what 
is  often  spoken  of  as  " undenominationalism" 
There  are  many  very  good  people,  who,  weary 
of  the  unceasing  strife  between  sect  and  sect, 
are  saying,  "  Let  us  try  to  find  out  the  essential 
truths  which  are  held  alike  by  all  denominations, 
and  let  us  take  our  stand  on  these  truths  alone, 
and  invite  all  to  accept  this  as  a  basis  of  union." 
Such  a  scheme  or  proposal  seems  at  first  sight 
so  plausible  that  it  is  little  wonder  that  many 
are  found  ready  to  adopt  it.  And  yet  if  we 
look  more  carefully  at  it  we  shall,  I  think,  see 
that,  great  as  the  evil  of  disunion  undoubtedly 
is,  the  remedy  proposed  is  even  worse  than  the 
evil  itself. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  experience,  what  does 
undenominationalism  really  mean  ?  Does  it 
mean  the  union  or  fusion  of  other  sects,  or  does 
it  not  rather  mean  the  addition  of  one  to  their 
number  ? 

The  worst  and  most  fatal  objection,  however, 
is  this,  that  to  become  undenominational  we 
must  be  prepared  to  give  up  at  least  two-thirds 
of  the  Bible  ;  for  if  we  decide  to  retain  as  essen- 
tial truth  only  that  on  which  everybody  is 
agreed,  we  shall  find  that  little  indeed  of  our 


6 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


Bible  is  left  to  us.  However  greatly  we  may 
desire  to  see  the  reunion  of  Christ's  Church, 
we  cannot,  we  dare  not,  give  up  the  very 
smallest  part  of  God's  written  revelation,  or 
leave  it  to  man  to  decide  what  is  or  what  is 
not  "essential  truth." 

But  there  is  yet  another  remedy  which  it  is 
possible  to  suggest.  Let  us  picture  to  ourselves 
a  Churchman  standing  amidst  a  group  of  re- 
presentatives of  the  three  hundred  denominations 
with  Bible  and  Prayer-book  in  his  hand.  He 
opens  his  Prayer-book,  and  begins  to  read  from 
the  twentieth  article,  "The  Church  hath  authority 
in  controversies  of  faith  ; "  at  this  point  we  can 
imagine  his  being  interrupted  by  a  storm  of 
disapprobation,  as  one  and  another  exclaims, 
"We  want  not  the  Church,  but  the  Bible  ! "  As 
soon  as  he  can  obtain  a  hearing,  he  begins  to 
explain  to  them  that  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering together  this  evening ;  he  shows  how 
the  principle  suggested  by  the  words,  "we 
receive  our  religion  from  the  Church,"  is  true 
not  only  of  the  Church  but  of  all  denominations 
alike.  As  he  turns  from  one  to  another  in  the 
crowd  before  him,  he  says,  "  You  each  receive 
your  religion  from  some  recognized  teacher  ;  you 


Authority  in  Matters  of  Faith.  7 


each  appeal  to  the  Bible  to  prove  what  you  have 
received.  You  Calvinists,  e.g.,  receive  your 
religion  from  John  Calvin,  you  Presbyterians 
from  John  Knox,  you  Wesleyans  from  John 
Wesley.  We  Churchmen  receive  our  religion 
not  from  any  one  teacher,  but  from  the  Church  ; 
she  is  our  teacher.  Nor  is  she  any  upstart  of 
yesterday  ;  it  was  for  her  that  the  Reformers 
gave  their  lives,  both  before  and  since  which 
her  articles  have  been  subscribed  by  tens  of 
thousands  of  good  and  holy  men."  He  would 
then  proceed  to  explain  that,  great  as  was  his 
respect  for  the  names  he  had  mentioned  before, 
it  could  not  compare  with,  still  less  outweigh, 
the  respect  claimed  from  him  by  the  long  list 
of  names  of  those  who  had  belonged  to  his 
Church  from  the  very  earliest  centuries  down 
to  the  present  day. 

He  would  then  go  on  with  the  words  of  his 
article,  "  And  yet  it  is  not  lawful  for  the  Church 
to  ordain  anything  that  is  contrary  to  God's 
Word  written."  Herein,  as  he  would  explain, 
lies  the  difference  between  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land and  that  of  Rome,  which  claims  from  its 
members  absolute  unquestioning  obedience,  and 
refuses  to  allow  her   individual  members  to 


8 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


appeal  from  her  teaching  to  that  of  the  Bible. 
The  principle  on  which  the  Church  of  England 
acts  is  the  exact  opposite  :  she  it  was  who  first 
gave  the  people  of  England  the  Bible  in  their 
own  tongue  ;  she  reads  to-day  more  Scripture 
than  any  other  body  ;  no  less  than  two-thirds 
of  her  services  consist  of  Scripture. 

The  authority  which  the  Church  claims  is 
"  educational  authority  ;  "  she  asks  a  patient 
and  respectful  hearing,  and  then  says  to  those 
who  have  received  her  teaching,  "  Go,  take  the 
religion  which  you  have  received,  and  prove  it 
for  yourself  from  the  Bible."  If  we  look  at  the 
words  of  our  text,  we  shall  see  that  those  here 
referred  to,  whose  action  is  commended,  did  not 
search  the  Bible  to  discover  what  they  were  to 
believe,  but  to  prove  the  correctness  of  that 
which  they  had  already  received.  We  are  not 
unfrequently  confronted  with  an  objection  to 
the  Church  such  as  this  :  "  I  do  not  accept  any 
authority  ;  I  read  my  Bible  for  myself,  and  go 
by  it."  Let  us  imagine  a  principle  such  as  this 
applied  to  any  other  branch  of  knowledge. 
Suppose,  for  example,  that  any  one  desirous  of 
studying  astronomy  were  to  say,  "  I  will  not 
allow  my  mind  to  be  prejudiced  by  any  know- 


Authority  in  Matters  of  Faith. 


9 


ledge  which  has  been  accumulated  in  the  past  ; 
I  will  start  afresh  for  myself  from  the  very 
beginning."  What  would  the  inevitable  result 
be?  It  is  conceivable  that  a  very  clever  boy, 
after  constructing  a  telescope  for  himself, 
might,  in  the  course  of  a  long  life,  discover  the 
fact  that  the  planets  go  round  the  sun,  but  it  is 
more  than  possible  that  he  would  not  get  even 
as  far  as  this.  If,  then,  it  would  be  such  manifest 
folly  to  apply  this  principle  to  any  other  branch 
of  knowledge,  is  it  not  something  worse  than 
folly  to  apply  it  to  the  highest  and  most  im- 
portant branch  of  all  ? 

To  sum  up,  then,  in  a  single  sentence  the 
difference  between  Nonconformists  and  Church- 
men— they  receive  their  religion  from  different 
teachers,  we  from  the  Church,  the  difference 
being  simply  in  regard  to  the  teacher  chosen. 
The  presumption,  however,  in  favour  of  the 
Church  (with  its  long  succession  of  teachers, 
saints,  and  heroes)  as  against  any  one  individual 
teacher  is  surely  overwhelming.  The  question 
which  still  remains  for  consideration  is  whether 
her  claim  to  teach  in  harmony  with  the  Bible 
can  be  sustained.  Next  time  we  shall  endeavour 
to  see  what  exactly  her  distinctive  teaching  is, 


IO 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


and  on  the  following  Friday  shall  go  on  to  test 
its  claim  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  Bible. 
Meanwhile  let  us  pray  that  God  may  grant  to 
us  a  more  teachable  mind,  a  more  earnest  desire 
to  submit  ourselves  to  the  guidance  of  His 
Holy  Spirit,  which  was  expressly  promised  to 
guide  us  into  all  truth,  and  an  ever-increasing 
determination  to  avoid  prolonging  or  increasing 
by  any  action  of  our  own  the  present  disunion 
in  Christ's  Body — His  Church. 


II. 


THE  CHURCH'S  FIRST  LESSON-BOOK. 

"  I  have  loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love  ...  for  I  am  a 
Father." — Jer.  xxxi.  3,  9. 

LAST  Friday  evening  we  examined  at  some 
length  the  statement  of  the  late  Dean  Hook, 
"We  receive  our  religion  from  the  Church,  we 
prove  it  from  the  Bible  ; "  we  saw  how,  with  the 
variation  of  a  single  word,  the  statement  is  true 
not  only  of  the  Church  but  of  all  sects  and 
denominations,  the  difference  between  a  Church- 
man and  a  Nonconformist  here  being  not  one 
of  principle  but  of  detail.  Both  alike  receive 
their  religion  from  some  one  or  more  teachers, 
both  alike  endeavour  to  prove  from  the  Bible 
the  truth  of  what  they  have  received,  the  point 
at  issue  being  simply  what  teacher  is  the  best. 

The  Churchman  says,  "  Believing  as  I  do 
that  truth  is  too  vast  to  be  grasped  in  its  en- 


12  The  Church  mid  her  Teaching. 


tirety  by  any  single  mind,  I  accept  as  my 
teacher  no  individual,  however  learned  and  good 
he  may  have  been,  but  a  body  or  succession  of 
men.  Moreover,  I  believe  that  inasmuch  as 
Christ's  promise  to  His  followers  that  the 
Spirit  should  be  given  to  guide  them  into  all 
truth  cannot  have  failed  of  its  fulfilment,  there- 
fore the  Church,  as  organized  by  them  and  by 
their  immediate  successors,  is  more  likely  to  be 
a  safe  guide  than  any  recent  or  comparatively 
recent  organization  can  be.  Hence  I  believe 
that  the  Reformed  Church  of  England,  whose 
professed  object  is  to  reproduce  the  teaching 
and  customs  of  the  Early  Church,  whilst  dis- 
carding all  mediaeval  additions  thereto,  is  likely 
to  be  the  surest  and  best  guide  which  exists  for 
me  to-day.  Still,  I  do  not  accept  her  teaching 
blindly ;  she  bids  me  search  the  Scriptures  in 
order  to  prove  for  myself  the  truth  of  what 
she  tells  me,  and  this  I  am  prepared  to  do." 
Such,  then,  is  the  position  which  a  Churchman 
of  to-day  might  be  supposed  to  assume.  Before, 
however,  we  can  do  as  we  have  suggested,  viz. 
submit  the  teaching  which  we  have  received  to 
the  test  of  Scripture,  we  must  first  be  quite 
clear  as  to  what  that  teaching  is.    More  than 


The  Church's  First  Lesson-Book.  13 

half  the  difficulties  which  people  feel  in  regard 
to  the  Church  arise  from  a  misunderstanding, 
or  at  any  rate  from  an  imperfect  understanding, 
as  to  what  her  teaching  really  is.  In  order  to 
gain  for  ourselves  the  clearest  possible  con- 
ception of  what  she  would  wish  us  to  understand, 
we  cannot  do  better  than  turn  for  a  moment  to 
what  has  rightly  been  termed  "  the  Churclis  first 
lesson -book"  I  mean  the  Church  Catechism. 
Drawn  up  originally  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI., 
in  view  of  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  the  times, 
it  expresses,  in  language  so  simple  that  a  child 
can  understand,  some  of  the  deepest  and  most 
wonderful  truths  of  the  Christian  revelation. 
George  Herbert  has  said  that  all  Divinity  could 
easily  be  reduced  to  the  Church  Catechism. 

We  cannot  now  attempt  any  detailed  exami- 
nation of  its  teaching  ;  all  that  we  can  do,  and 
all  that  is  needful  for  our  present  purpose  to  do, 
is  to  grasp  the  underlying  principles  which  run 
through  it  all. 

The  one  leading  idea  which  we  may  trace 
throughout  the  whole,  in  so  far  as  we  can  ex- 
press it  in  a  single  sentence,  is  this  :  the  first 
step  in  religion  consists  not  in  doing  anything 
for  God,  but  in  believing  what  He  has  done  for 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


man.  To  understand  this  better,  let  us  compare 
the  opening  words  of  the  Scotch  Catechism  with 
those  of  our  own.  It  begins  with  the  question, 
"  What  is  the  chief  end  of  man  ? "  the  answer 
being,  "To  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  Him  for 
ever."  True  and  noble  words,  no  doubt ;  but 
many  of  us  will  feel  that  they  cannot  but 
prefer  the  order  adopted  by  our  own  Catechism, 
according  to  which  the  child  is  first  taught  that 
he  is  a  member  of  Christ,  the  child  of  God,  and 
an  inheritor  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and 
then,  having  duly  learned  his  privileges,  is 
reminded  of  the  responsibilities  which  these 
privileges  entail.  The  Church's  teaching  as 
expressed  in  the  Catechism  is  that  it  is  impos- 
sible for  any  one  to  love  or  serve  God  who  has 
not  first  understood  and  believed  the  existence 
of  God's  love  towards  himself;  in  accordance 
with  this  principle  we  find  that  the  Creed  is 
here  placed  before  the  Commandments  ;  "  bound 
to  believe  "  comes  before  "  bound  to  do,"  bless- 
ings before  duties,  privileges  before  responsi- 
bilities. It  may  be  urged  that  this  truth  is  not 
peculiar  to  our  Church  Catechism  ;  but  whereas 
it  is  to  be  found  partially  and  incidentally 
elsewhere,  it  here  forms  the  basis  on  which 


The  Church's  First  Lesson-Book.  15 


the  whole  of  the  after-teaching  is  made  to 
depend. 

To  pass  on,  then,  to  what  is  still  more  dis- 
tinctive of  the  teaching  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. There  are  many  who  would  perhaps  be 
disposed  to  say,  "  Yes,  I  agree  with  the  teaching 
of  the  Church  and  of  the  Catechism  thus  far, 
but  what  about  its  statements  in  regard  to 
Baptism  ?  that  is  where  my  difficulty  lies."  Let 
us  see,  then,  what  the  teaching  of  our  Church 
on  the  subject  of  Baptism  really  is.  We  shall 
best  understand  its  significance  by  taking  an 
illustration  suggested  by  actual  experience.  A 
man  comes  to  us,  we  will  suppose,  seeking  for 
guidance  and  help  in  order  to  enable  him  to 
lead  a  definitely  religious  life  ;  in  answer  to  his 
appeal  for  direction,  we  say  to  him  in  the  spirit 
of  our  Church's  teaching,  "  If  you  would  live  as 
a  child  of  God  should  live,  you  must  begin  by 
believing  that  God  is  your  Father;  this  is  the 
first  step  in  the  Christian  life,  until  you  have 
taken  which  all  progress  is  impossible."  Sup- 
posing him  then  to  reply,  "  Is  it  really  true 
that  God  is  my  Father,  and  that  I  am  His 
child,  for  if  it  is  not  true  I  cannot  believe  it  in 
order  that  my  doing  so  may  make  it  true  ? " 


l6  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 

How  is  a  difficulty  such  as  this,  which  all  who 
have  had  anything  to  do  with  mission  work 
know  to  be  a  very  common  one  indeed,  to  be 
met  ?  Various  answers  have  been  given  from 
time  to  time  by  the  different  denominations 
outside  the  Church,  the  majority  of  which  would 
agree  in  saying  that  a  man  is  not  the  child  of 
God  in  the  full  meaning  of  the  word  until  his 
believing  that  he  is  has  made  him  so.  In  other 
words,  we  are  bidden  to  believe  a  statement 
which  is  not  necessarily  true,  but  which  will 
become  so  as  we  believe  it.  We  can  well  under- 
stand how  teaching  such  as  this  must  tend  to 
confuse  the  mind  of  the  earnest  seeker  after 
truth,  and  still  more  that  of  the  little  child. 

What,  then,  is  the  answer  which  the  Church 
has  to  give  to  the  question  which  we  have 
suggested  ?  Whether  that  answer  be  right  or 
wrong,  it  is  at  least  clear  and  unmistakable. 
In  reply  to  the  question,  "  Is  it  true  that  I  am 
the  child  of  God  even  before  I  believe?"  she 
would  say,  "  Yes,  it  is  true  ;  you  have  a  position 
as  such,  or  I  would  not  ask  you  to  believe  in 
it.  Your  faith  does  not  create  anything ;  it 
simply  claims  the  privileges  which,  in  virtue  of 
your  baptism,  are  already  yours,  and  appro- 


The  Church's  First  Lesson-Book. 


17 


priates  the  blessings  which  those  privileges  were 
intended  to  secure." 

The  distinctive  teaching  of  the  Church  in 
regard  to  this  is  seen  most  clearly  in  the  ex- 
planation which  the  Catechism  gives  of  the 
Creed.  In  answer  to  the  question,  "What  dost 
thou  chiefly  learn  by  these  articles  of  thy 
belief?"  the  child  is  taught  to  recognize  the 
existence  of  three  different  circles  in  the  Creed 
one  within  the  other,  in  the  innermost  of  which 
he  has  right  to  claim  a  place  in  virtue  of  his 
baptism.  The  actual  words  as  they  occur  in 
the  Catechism  are  these  :  "  First,  I  learn  to 
believe  in  God  the  Father,  who  hath  made  me, 
and  all  the  world."  Here  we  have  the  outermost 
circle  of  all,  embracing  even  inanimate  nature, 
into  which  we  are  admitted  by  creation. 
"  Secondly,"  so  the  answer  goes  on,  "  in  God 
the  Son,  who  hath  redeemed  me,  and  all  man- 
kind." Here  we  have  a  circle,  wide  indeed, 
but  not  so  wide  as  the  first,  into  which  we  are 
admitted  by  virtue  of  Christ's  atonement  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  Yet,  once  more 
we  read,  "Thirdly,  in  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  who 
sanctifieth  me,  and  all  the  elect  people  of  God." 
Here  we  have  the  innermost  circle  of  all,  an 


18         The  Church  and  lier  Teaching. 

elect  people  or  Church  chosen  out  from  the 
rest  of  mankind,  into  which  we  are  admitted  by 
baptism. 

This,  then,  is  one  of  the  most  distinctive 
points  of  difference  between  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  and  that  of  all  other  bodies  outside  her 
communion  ;  she  says  to  each  of  her  members, 
"  You  are  the  possessor  in  virtue  of  your  baptism 
of  wondrous  privileges  ;  you  are  a  child  in  God's 
family,  a  member  of  Christ's  Body,  i.e.  His 
Church,  and  a  citizen  of  His  Kingdom.  Claim 
these  privileges  by  faith,  and  they  will  bring  to 
you  the  blessings  they  were  intended  to  secure." 
If  we  accept  this  teaching,  we  may  go  to  all 
those  who  have  been  baptized,  even  though 
they  have  forgotten  the  fact  and  are  living  in 
selfishness  and  sin,  and  we  may  say  to  them, 
"  God  is  your  Father  and  loves  you,  and  will 
continue  to  love  you  with  more  than  an  earthly 
father's  love ;  though  like  the  prodigal  you 
have  wandered  into  the  far  country,  He  is 
waiting,  nay,  longing  to  receive  you  back  to 
Himself,  provided  only  you  are  prepared  to  live 
up  to  the  privileges  which  as  a  child  of  God 
you  possess." 

This,  in  briefest  outline,  is  the  teaching  of  the 


The  Church's  First  Lesson-Book.  ig 

Church  to  all  her  baptized  members.  Had  we 
time  we  could  easily  show  how  this,  too,  is  the 
teaching  of  the  Prayer-book ;  how  all  her 
prayers  (even  as  the  Lord's  Prayer  itself,  with 
which  her  service  originally  commenced)  pre- 
suppose the  fact  that  the  worshippers  occupy 
the  position  of  children  in  relation  to  a  father. 

Our  subject  next  time  will  be  "The  teaching 
tested,"  in  the  light  both  of  Scripture  and  of 
practical  experience  ;  for  this  latter  is  a  test 
ordained  by  Christ  Himself  when,  speaking  con- 
cerning false  teachers,  He  said,  "  By  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them."  If  it  can  be  shown  that 
the  inevitable,  or  at  least  the  natural,  tendency 
of  this  teaching  is  to  encourage  careless  living, 
or  to  make  men  think  lightly  of  the  change 
which  takes  place  in  conversion,  or  of  the 
necessity  for  such  change,  then  shall  we  be 
constrained  to  say,  this  teaching  cannot  be  of 
God.  But  if  it  should  appear  that  the  very 
opposite  is  the  case,  and  if,  moreover,  we  can 
show  that  the  principle  which  underlies  this 
teaching  is  one  which  underlies  the  whole  of  the 
Old  Testament  revelation,  and  which  formed 
the  ground  of  appeal  to  the  unbelieving  as  made 
by  each  successive  prophet,  then,  instead  of 


20 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


rejecting  or  explaining  away  the  teaching  which 
we  have  received  from  the  Church,  we  shall 
rather  unite  in  thanking  God  who  has  preserved 
to  us,  amidst  all  the  changes  of  the  centuries 
that  are  past,  at  least  one  unchanging  witness 
to  the  "truth  once  for  all  delivered  unto  the 
saints." 


III. 


THE  TEACHING  TESTED. 

"  In'one  Spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into  one  body." — I  Cor. 
xii.  i3(R.V.). 

THE  subject  which  we  considered  together  on 
the  first  Friday  evening  in  Lent  was  the  nature 
of  the  authority  which  the  Church  claims  as  a 
teacher  ;  last  Friday  we  advanced  a  step  further, 
and  endeavoured  to  gather  from  the  Catechism 
what  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  that 
teaching  were.  To-night  we  shall  try  to 
submit  this  teaching  to  the  test,  first  of  the 
Bible,  and  secondly  of  practical  experience,  for, 
as  we  said  last  time,  unless  it  can  satisfy  this 
double  test  we  shall  find  it  impossible  to  accept 
with  unwavering  confidence  the  claims  which  it 
makes  upon  us.  If,  on  the  one  hand,  it  should 
appear  that  although,  as  judged  by  visible 
results,  the  teaching  of  the  Catechism  seems  to 
warrant  our  acceptance,  it  nevertheless  fails  to 


22  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 

find  support — we  will  not  say  from  individual 
texts,  for  no  heresy,  whether  in  ancient  or 
modern  time,  has  ever  failed  to  quote  isolated 
texts  in  its  defence,  but — from  the  general 
tenor  of  revelation  both  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  in  the  New  Testament,  then,  no  matter 
how  venerable  or  ancient  the  tradition  by  which 
it  is  supported,  its  failure  to  satisfy  this  supreme 
test  must  compel  us  to  reject  altogether  its 
claim  upon  our  acceptance.  Or,  again,  suppos- 
ing it  should  appear  that,  notwithstanding  its 
apparent  harmony  with  the  general  tenor  of 
revelation,  it  tends  to  produce  harmful  and 
untrue  results  as  seen  in  actual  life,  then  shall 
we  be  forced  to  suspect  that  the  method  of 
interpretation  by  which  we  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  the  teaching  was  in  accordance 
with  Scripture  must  itself  be  at  fault. 

In  order  to  submit  the  teaching  to  the  test 
we  have  proposed,  we  must,  at  the  risk  of  some 
slight  repetition,  sum  up  the  results  at  which 
we  arrived  last  time.  We  saw  then  that  the 
difference  between  the  teaching  of  the  Catechism 
and  much  of  the  teaching  of  to-day  outside  the 
Church,  is  that  whereas  such  popular  Christianity 
would  say  to  those  to  whom  it  addresses  itself, 


The  Teaching  tested.  23 


"  You  are  the  child  of  the  devil,  you  may  be- 
come the  child  of  God,"  the  Catechism  would 
say  the  exact  opposite,  "  You  are  the  child  of 
God,  you  may  become  the  child  of  the  devil." 
We  saw,  moreover,  how  in  its  explanation  of  the 
Creed  the  Catechism  teaches  us  to  recognize  the 
existence  of  three  distinct  classes  or  circles,  the 
first  embracing  animate  and  inanimate  nature 
alike,  the  second  the  whole  human  race,  and  the 
third  composed  of  an  elect  people  or  society 
chosen  out  from  all  the  rest  of  mankind  ;  ad- 
mission into  this  innermost  circle  being  granted 
quite  apart  from  any  personal  merit  on  the  part 
of  the  recipient,  but  simply  on  the  ground  and 
as  the  result  of  obedience  to  a  definite  com- 
mand given  by  the  original  Founder  of  the 
society.  The  point  which  we  shall  try  to  con- 
sider to-night  is  whether  or  not  this  teaching  is 
in  harmony  with  the  whole  spirit  of  the  divine 
revelation  alike  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in 
the  New  Testament.  Do  God's  dealings  with 
men  in  the  past  afford  any  parallel  to  what  we 
must  suppose  His  dealings  with  them  in  the 
present  to  be,  if  this  teaching  as  to  an  elect 
people,  an  inner  circle,  and  a  visible  rite  of 
admission  to  the  same,  be  really  true  ? 


24  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


Does  the  Bible,  for  instance,  give  us  any  hint 
that  before  the  Christian  Church  came  into  exist- 
ence, God  selected  by  an  apparently  arbitrary 
choice  a  particular  people  who  were  marked 
off  from  all  others  by  an  outward  rite  or 
ceremony,  in  order  that  they  might  be  the 
recipients  of  special  favours  and  blessings  ? 
The  answer  to  this  question  is  so  obvious  that 
we  need  scarcely  stop  to  suggest  it.  More  than 
half  our  Bible  is  given  up  exclusively  to  the 
history  of  just  such  a  society  or  people.  We 
read  in  the  Old  Testament  how  God  in  ancient 
times  chose  out  one  particular  race  utterly 
insignificant  in  power  and  in  number  amongst 
the  nations  of  the  world,  and,  as  their  after- 
history  showed,  possessing  few  if  any  distinctive 
virtues,  but  capable  of  all  the  worst  vices 
practised  by  the  heathen  from  amongst  whom 
they  were  chosen  ;  and  how  the  members  of 
this  race  were  marked  off  from  infancy  by  an 
outward  rite  or  ceremony  intended  to  remind 
them  that  they  were  a  peculiar  people,  the 
possessors  of  privileges  and  the  heirs  of  pro- 
mised blessings  which  had  been  granted  to 
them  alone.  Nor  is  it  difficult  for  us  to  under- 
stand the  object  which  it  was  hereby  intended 


The  Teaching  tested.  25 


to  secure.  Prior  to  the  selection  of  this  race, 
the  divine  revelation  which  had  been  granted  to 
single  individuals,  e.g.  to  Enoch  and  to  Noah, 
had  failed  to  produce  any  definite  or  lasting 
impression  upon  the  world  owing  to  the  absence 
of  any  principle  of  continuity  in  connection 
with  the  same.  It  is,  indeed,  a  fact  to  which 
the  history  of  all  religions  alike  bears  witness, 
that  truth,  in  order  to  win  its  way  in  the  world, 
needs  not  only  to  be  embodied,  but  needs  to  be 
embodied  in  some  permanent  form.  The  in- 
fluence of  any  single  individual  upon  the  world, 
no  matter  how  true  and  noble  it  may  be,  is, 
in  consequence  of  the  inevitable  limitations  to 
which  he  is  subject,  an  influence  which  tends  to 
pass  away  as  soon  as  his  personality  is  with- 
drawn. If  the  knowledge  of  God  were  to  be 
'spread  throughout  the  world,  it  was  necessary 
that  in  some  way  or  other  permanence  and 
continuity  should  be  given  to  the  gradually  un- 
folding revelation.  Hence  it  was,  as  we  may 
fairly  assume,  that  one  man  was  singled  out 
who  should  learn  and  do  the  truth  himself,  and 
then  teach  it  to  those  under  his  charge,  to  his 
family,  who  in  turn  should  transmit  the  same 
to  their  descendants.    Thus  we  read  in  Gen. 


26  The  Church  and  Jier  Teaching. 


xviii.  19  (R.V.),  "  I  have  known  him,  to  the  end 
that  he  may  command  his  children  .  . .  after  him, 
that  they  may  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord."  The 
principle  according  to  which  a  particular  people 
were  selected  to  be  the  medium  by  which  the 
truth,  revealed  in  the  first  instance  to  them 
alone,  should  be  preserved  and  given  forth  to 
the  world,  is  a  principle  which  characterizes  the 
whole  of  God's  dealings  in  the  Old  Testament 
from  the  time  of  Abraham  onwards.  The 
question  then  arises,  as  we  pass  from  the  Old 
Testament  revelation  to  the  New,  Is  there  any- 
thing to  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  whole 
method  and  principle  of  God's  dealings  with 
men  prior  to  the  coming  of  Christ  was  then 
reversed  ?  Or,  is  it  not  rather  the  fact  that  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament,  who  had  all 
been  trained  as  members  of  this  earlier  Jewish 
Church,  take  pains  to  assure  us  that  although 
those  originally  chosen  have  been  temporally 
rejected,  the  continuity  of  the  Christian  Church 
with  the  Jewish  is  in  no  wise  affected  thereby  ? 
The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  written  for 
this  express  purpose,  viz.  to  contradict  the 
supposition  that  any  break  had  occurred  in  the 
divine  revelation  or  in  the  method  of  its  mani- 


27 


festation.  We  said  that  the  essential  point  of 
difference  between  the  teaching  of  our  Church 
to-day,  and  that  of  all  other  bodies  of  Christians, 
is  briefly  this,  that  we  Churchmen  believe  that 
ever  since  the  Day  of  Pentecost  God  has  chosen 
out  a  visible  Society,  admission  into  which  is 
obtained  by  the  outward  rite  of  baptism,  and 
has  assured  to  all  members  of  this  Society,  quite 
irrespective  of  any  personal  merit,  privileges  and 
blessings  far  exceeding  those  given  to  the  world 
at  large.  If,  then,  as  we  believe,  the  study  both 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New  serves  to 
establish  the  fact  that  teaching  such  as  this  is 
in  entire  harmony  with  all  God's  dealings  with 
men  in  the  past,  and  if,  moreover,  it  can  be 
shown  that  this  teaching  was  accepted  without 
question  by  every  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church  for  the  first  fifteen  hundred  years  after 
its  formation,  we  shall  feel  it  ever  more  and  more 
impossible  to  abandon  the  same  in  favour  of  any 
private  interpretation  of  Scripture,  whether  our 
own  or  that  of  any  one  else.  But  here  we  are 
not  unlikely  to  be  met  with  a  difficulty  such  as 
this  :  there  are  many  who  would  be  disposed  to 
agree  with  what  has  been  said  concerning  the 
Jewish  Church  and  with  the  fact  that  the  Chris- 


2.S 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


tian  Church  was  intended  to  be  a  continuation 
of  the  same,  but  who  would  say  to  us,  "  The 
Church  in  the  existence  of  which  I  believe,  is 
not  a  visible  society  such  as  you  describe,  but 
is  an  invisible  Cliurch,  composed  of  Christians 
belonging  to  all  sects  and  bodies  scattered 
throughout  the  world  ;  surely,"  such  an  one 
would  argue,  "  the  Church  of  Christ  must  be  a 
pure  and  spotless  Church,  and  cannot  possibly 
be  identified  with  that  of  which  you  speak,  and 
which,  as  you  would  yourself  admit,  is  so  far 
from  being  perfect  that  it  contains  amongst  its 
members  many  who  are  utterly  unworthy  of  the 
name  Christian."  We  shall  obtain  our  truest 
solution  to  a  difficulty  such  as  this  by  referring 
once  again  to  the  Bible,  considering  as  we  did 
before,  not  so  much  statements  to  be  obtained 
from  individual  texts,  which  if  taken  apart  from 
their  context  may  often  mislead  us,  but  the 
whole  spirit  and  tenor  of  revelation.  The  diffi- 
culty before  us  is  briefly  this  :  Can  a  Church 
which  has  so  many  blemishes,  and  contains  so 
many  unworthy  members  as  the  Church  of 
England  does,  claim  to  represent  in  any  real 
sense  the  Church  which  Christ  came  to  found  ? 
or,  do  not  these  admitted  shortcomings  in  our 


The  Teaching  tested. 


29 


Church  render  such  identification  impossible  ? 
Turning  to  the  history  contained  in  the  Bible, 
do  we  find  that  the  original  Jewish  Church 
was  without  spot  or  blemish,  or  that  it  con- 
tained within  it  no  unworthy  members?  or  do 
we  read  anywhere  in  the  Old  Testament  of 
an  invisible  body  as  separate  and  distinct 
from  the  outward  and  visible  Church  ?  Surely 
not.  Passing,  then,  from  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  New  Testament,  do  we  find  that  the 
nucleus  of  the  Christian  Church,  even  when  that 
nucleus  consisted  of  but  twelve  persons,  was 
free  from  all  blemish,  or  that  it  included  no  un- 
worthy member  ?  Or,  to  refer  to  a  later  period 
when  the  organization  of  the  Church  was  more 
fully  developed,  do  we  find  that  the  Church  at 
Corinth — those,  e.g.,  of  whom  St.  Paul  speaks  in 
the  words  of  our  text  when  he  says,  "  In  one 
Spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into  one  body" — was 
composed  only  of  Christians  worthy  of  the 
name  ?  So  far  was  this  from  being  the  case, 
that  no  Church  of  which  we  read  in  the  New 
Testament  was  so  full  of  contention  and  of  evil, 
and  yet  St.  Paul  did  not  say  to  them,  as  he 
would  naturally  have  done  had  he  believed  in 
the  existence  of  an  invisible  Church  such  as 


30  The  CJiurcJi  and  Iter  Teaching. 

we  have  described,  "  Because  this  is  so,  there- 
fore ye  are  no  longer  members  of  Christ's 
Church  ; "  on  the  contrary,  he  urged  upon  them 
the  fact  that  in  virtue  of  their  baptism  they 
were  members  of  Christ's  Body  as  the  very 
reason  why  they  should  strive  to  rise  to  a  higher 
standard  and  to  put  away  the  evil  from  amongst 
them.  Had  we  time,  we  might  show  how  the 
argument  which  St.  Paul  here  uses  recurs  again 
and  again  throughout  the  New  Testament, 
whereas  the  doctrine  of  an  invisible  Church, 
as  opposed  to  an  organized  and  visible  one,  is 
not  only  unsupported  by  the  history  of  the 
New  Testament,  but  is  opposed  to  the  whole 
spirit  of  its  teaching.  This  doctrine  was  ap- 
parently first  suggested  towards  the  end  of  the 
second  century  by  an  heretical  sect  called 
Montanists  who  lived  in  North  Africa,  and 
who  were  regarded  as  excommunicate  by  the 
whole  Christian  Church  on  the  ground  that 
their  teaching  was  opposed  to  that  of  Scripture. 
After  being  revived  in  a  modified  form  by 
another  heretical  sect  in  the  fourth  century 
called  Donatists,  it  appears  to  have  died  out, 
till,  like  so  many  of  the  heresies  which  troubled 
the  early  Church,  it  was  revived  again  within 


The  Teaching  tested.  31 

comparatively  recent  time.  We  can  but  trust 
that  a  more  careful  study  both  of  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  Church  as  described  in  the  Old 
and  in  the  New  Testament  may  lead  to  its 
disappearance  as  before. 

So  far  we  have  been  engaged  in  endeavouring 
to  submit  the  distinctive  teaching  of  the  Church 
to  the  test  of  Scripture ;  it  has  yet  to  be  seen 
as  to  whether  or  not  it  can  stand  the  second 
suggested  test,  viz.  that  of  practical  experience. 
It  is  sometimes  urged  by  those  who  are  unable 
to  accept  the  teaching  of  the  Church  that  such 
teaching,  even  if  it  were  true,  would  inevitably 
tend  to  encourage  carelessness  of  living.  They 
would  have  us  refrain  from  telling  a  man  who 
was  living  in  sin  that  he  is  a  child  of  God  for 
fear  lest  such  an  assurance  should  encourage 
him  to  continue  as  he  is  ;  they  would  rather  bid 
us  urge  upon  him  the  fact  of  his  estrangement 
from  God,  in  order  that  he  may  be  thereby  the 
more  easily  induced  to  seek  to  gain  for  himself 
the  privileges  of  sonship.  But  surely  the  result 
which  we  are  thus  bidden  to  guard  against 
would  arise  not  from  the  teaching  of  Church 
principles,  but  from  a  total  misunderstanding 
of  what  those  principles  are.    It  was  not  the 


32  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


belief  that  he  had  ceased  to  be  a  son  which 
induced  the  prodigal  to  return,  but  it  was  the 
conviction  of  the  exact  opposite  ;  it  was  the 
knowledge  that  despite  all  his  sin  he  had  still 
a  Father  to  whom  he  might  return  that  em- 
boldened him  to  do  so. 

Finally,  to  suggest  the  most  certain  of  all 
tests,  would  we  discover  what  the  real  tendency 
of  such  teaching  is,  let  us  not  simply  rely  upon 
the  experience  of  others,  but  let  us  resolve,  if 
we  have  not  already  done  so,  to  test  it  by  our 
own.  Let  us  determine  that  from  this  time 
forth  we  will  believe  and  act  as  though  it  were 
true,  that  God  is  indeed  our  Father,  and,  ac- 
knowledging ourselves  as  His  children,  claim 
from  Him  the  power  to  live  as  His  children 
should.  We  shall  thus  find  that,  so  far  from 
such  a  belief  acting  as  an  incentive  to  care- 
lessness of  living,  our  power  to  conquer  sin  will 
ever  bear  an  exact  proportion  to  our  determi- 
nation to  act  on  the  assumption  that  such  a 
belief  is  true. 


IV. 


OBJECTIONS  TO  THE  CHURCH. 

"  Ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk 
therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls." — Jer.  vi.  16. 

IN  passing  on  to  the  consideration  of  "Objections 
to  the  Church,"  which  we  have  chosen  as  our 
subject  for  to-night,  we  would  like  to  repeat 
what  we  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  course, 
that  our  object  is  not  so  much  to  suggest  answers 
to  objections  which  might  be  raised  from  a  con- 
troversial point  of  view  by  those  outside  the 
Church,  but  rather  to  attempt  the  solution  of 
difficulties  such  as  may  from  time  to  time  arise 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  already  by  con- 
viction members  of  the  Church. 

One  of  the  commonest  and,  at  the  same  time, 
most  serious  difficulties  which  is  likely  to  suggest 
itself,  especially  here  in  Cornwall,  would  find 
expression  in  words  such  as  these:  "  If  the  teach- 

D 


34 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


ing  of  the  Church  that  we  are  made  children 
of  God  in  baptism  be  really  true,  what  place 
is  there  left  for  the  doctrine  of  diversion  ? 
Does  not  the  belief  in  the  one  necessarily 
involve  the  rejection  of  the  other  ? "  The 
difficulty  which  this  question  suggests  is  no 
imaginary  one,  whilst  at  the  same  time  it  is 
one  which,  if  left  unanswered,  might  well  cause 
us  to  hesitate  before  accepting  the  teaching  of 
the  Catechism  ;  for  the  doctrine  of  conversion 
is  itself  a  doctrine  of  such  supreme  importance 
that  we  may  be  justly  apprehensive  of  any 
teaching  which  might  seem  to  rob  it  of  its 
significance. 

Before  endeavouring  to  see  what  exactly  the 
relationship  between  baptism  and  conversion  is, 
let  us  be  quite  clear  in  our  minds  as  to  what  we 
mean  by  conversion.  The  word  is  used  in  two 
quite  distinct  senses,  the  one  implying  an  all- 
important  truth,  the  other  a  perversion  of  that 
truth  against  which  we  do  well  to  be  on  our 
guard.  In  mission  work  here  in  Cornwall,  it 
is  not  an  unfrequent  occurrence  to  have  a  man 
pointed  out  who,  it  may  be,  is  leading  a  careless 
and  selfish  life,  and  to  be  told  that  such  an  one 
has  been  converted  perhaps  as  many  as  six 


Objections  to  the  Church.  35 


times.  What  does  a  case  like  this  imply? 
Does  it  not  imply  that  the  word  has  been  per- 
verted to  an  altogether  wrong  use  ;  that  on  each 
several  occasion  on  which  conversion  was  sup- 
posed to  have  occurred,  a  strong  but  passing 
wave  of  feeling  or  emotion  was  accepted  both 
by  teacher  and  taught  as  evidence  of  a  change 
to  which  the  life  and  character  bore  no  corre- 
sponding witness  ?  We  cannot  too  constantly 
remind  ourselves  that  conversion  is  a  question 
of  will,  and  not  of  feeling.  Feeling  saved  is 
itself  no  proof  whatever  of  being  converted,  the 
highest,  the  only  real  proof  of  which  is  to  be 
found  in  the  answer  to  the  question,  "  Am  I 
at  this  present  moment  willing  and  actively 
determined  to  carry  out  what  I  believe  to  be 
God's  will  in  my  daily  life  ? "  If  we  cannot 
truthfully  answer  "  yes  "  to  this  question,  it  can 
surely  be  of  no  avail  to  plead  that  on  some  past 
occasion  in  our  lives  we  have  been  the  subject 
of  strong  religious  feelings  ;  for  such  experiences, 
if  real,  would  serve  but  to  increase  our  re- 
sponsibility, and  render  us  the  more  to  blame 
for  not  leading  a  corresponding  life. 

Before  passing  on  to  consider  more  directly 
the  bearing  of  the  doctrine  of  baptism  on  that 


36  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


of  conversion,  it  might  be  well  to  allude  to  a 
difficulty  which  has  from  time  to  time  been  a 
cause  of  distress  to  many  earnest  Christians, 
who  are  miserable  because  they  cannot  fix  the 
exact  day  or  hour  when  their  conversion 
occurred,  and  are  tempted  to  doubt  its  reality 
in  consequence.  If,  as  we  have  said,  conversion 
is  dependent  upon  the  will,  and  not  on  the 
emotions,  we  see  how  unreasonable  such  a 
ground  for  fear  must  be.  Imagine  a  man 
refusing  to  believe  that  the  sun  is  shining 
around  him  because  he  did  not  happen  to  have 
seen  it  rise,  and  you  will  then  have  an  illustra- 
tion of  what  he  is  doing  who  refuses  to  believe 
in  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins  and  of  his  con- 
version to  God  merely  because  he  cannot  fix 
the  exact  time  when  such  a  state  commenced. 
If  we  may  certainly  know  that  the  sun  is 
shining  without  having  seen  it  rise,  we  may 
equally  know  that  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
has  arisen  in  our  hearts  without  being  able  to 
fix  the  exact  time  when  we  first  allowed  its  rays 
to  enter. 

To  pass  on,  then,  to  the  question,  What  is 
the  connection  which  exists,  or  ought  to  exist, 
between  baptism  and  conversion?     May  we 


Objections  to  the  Church.  37 


not  say  that  the  first  is  that  which  makes  it 
possible  to  expect  the  occurrence  of  the  second  ? 
By  the  first,  viz.  baptism,  the  child  is  assured 
of  his  position  as  a  member  of  God's  family  ;  by 
the  second,  viz.  conversion,  he  appropriates  to 
himself  the  blessings  assured  to  him  in  his 
baptism,  but  which  if  left  unappropriated  by  the 
action  of  his  will  would  eventually  have  been 
lost.  To  refer  once  again  to  the  parable  of  the 
prodigal  son,  his  conversion,  if  we  may  so  speak, 
occurred  at  the  moment  of  his  return  to  his 
father ;  but  it  was  the  knowledge  that  he  had 
still  a  father  to  whom  he  might  return  (the 
knowledge  which  since  the  institution  of  the 
Christian  Church  is  secured  to  us  by  baptism) 
which  made  such  conversion  possible.  Whilst 
we  would  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  no  un- 
baptized  person  can  be  converted,  we  would 
nevertheless  regard  the  fact  that  a  person  had 
been  baptized,  and  so  brought  into  covenant 
relation  with  God,  as  providing  the  strongest 
argument  with  which  to  appeal  to  the  uncon- 
verted, and  at  the  same  time  as  affording  the 
surest  ground  for  expecting  that  an  appeal  so 
made  should  be  successful.  So  far  is  it  from 
being  the  case  that  the  teaching  of  the  Church 


38  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


in  regard  to  baptism  tends  to  disparage  the 
importance  of  conversion,  that  it  is  only  as  we 
learn  to  understand  the  former  that  we  shall  be 
in  a  position  to  appreciate  the  significance  of 
the  latter. 

The  second  of  the  "  Objections  to  the  Church  " 
to  which  we  would  wish  to  refer  to-night  is  one 
which  is  chiefly  felt  by  those  who  are  compara- 
tively unfamiliar  with  our  Church's  services. 
Such  would  be  disposed  to  say  to  us,  "  If  you 
read  your  prayers  out  of  a  printed  book,  how 
can  you  expect  that  they  will  be  as  sincere  or 
as  helpful  to  others  as  they  would  be  if  they 
were  the  spontaneous  expression  of  the  feelings 
and  desires  of  the  individual  by  whom  they  are 
offered  ?  Would  it  not  be  well  to  modify  your 
Church's  service  at  least  so  far  as  to  leave  to 
the  choice  of  the  individual  minister  the  prayers 
which  he  is  to  repeat,  and  would  it  not  at  the 
same  time  be  possible  so  to  remodel  the  order 
of  your  service  as  to  give  to  the  reading  of  the 
Bible  a  greater  prominence  than  it  now  has  ?  " 
There  are  two  different  points  of  view  from 
which  we  may  approach  the  discussion  of  this 
difficulty  ;  the  first  is  what  we  might  call  the 
historical,  and  the  second  the  practical  point  of 


Objections  to  the  Church.  39 


view.  As  far  back  as  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church  extends,  that  is  to  within  a 
few  years  of  the  time  of  the  Apostles  them- 
selves, the  Church  has  had  a  fixed  and  regular 
form  of  service,  a  form  corresponding  in  all 
essential  particulars  to  that  which  we  find  in 
our  English  Prayer-book.  In  adopting,  there- 
fore, the  words  which  the  Church  puts  into  our 
mouths  to-day,  we  are  adopting  the  prayers  and 
praises  which  have  been  used  by  countless 
thousands  of  the  best  and  holiest  men  who 
have  lived  during  the  centuries  that  are  passed, 
and  are  thereby  uniting  ourselves  in  spirit  to 
all  those  who  were  once  members  like  ourselves 
of  the  Church  militant,  but  are  now  members 
of  the  Church  whose  warfare  is  accomplished. 
Were  there  no  other  argument  in  favour  of  the 
Church's  liturgy  to  suggest,  the  knowledge  that 
probably  every  single  prayer  has  been  hallowed 
by  association  with  the  experience  of  some 
saint  or  hero  of  the  past  might  well  cause  us  to 
hesitate  before  consenting  to  disinherit  ourselves 
of  the  legacy  which  our  forefathers  have  be- 
queathed to  us. 

Again,  to  approach  the  question  from  the 
point  of  view  suggested  by  practical  experience, 


4o 


The  Church  and  iter  Teaching. 


one  advantage  which  the  Churchman  secures 
by  his  adoption  of  a  fixed  liturgy  is,  that  he  is 
thus  rendered  independent  of  any  shortcomings 
or  deficiencies  on  the  part  of  his  own  clergy. 
Wherever  he  may  chance  to  find  himself, 
whether  it  be  in  England  or  America,  in  India 
or  Australia,  he  knows  before  entering  the 
church  that,  no  matter  how  uneducated  or 
unsatisfactory  the  minister  may  be,  no  matter 
how  uninteresting  the  sermon,  he  will  neverthe- 
less have  the  opportunity  afforded  him  of  taking 
part  in  the  very  same  service  which  many  thou- 
sands, if  not  millions,  of  fellow-worshippers  are 
offering  to  God  elsewhere,  it  may  be  at  that 
very  hour.  Even  if  prevented  from  being 
present  at  church,  he  is  not  thereby  debarred 
from  the  privilege  of  this  common  worship,  for 
as  he  repeats  the  service  in  his  own  home  he 
knows  that  the  prayers  and  praises  which  he 
utters,  hallowed  as  they  are  by  countless  asso- 
ciations with  the  past,  form  an  invisible  but 
none  the  less  real  bond  of  union  between  him- 
self and  the  whole  Christian  Church  scattered 
throughout  the  world. 

Passing  on,  then,  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
suggestion  referred  to  above,  viz.  that  the  read- 


Objections  to  the  Church. 


41 


ing  of  the  Bible  should  be  given  a  greater 
prominence  in  our  services  than  is  at  present 
the  case,  the  difficulty  which  such  a  suggestion 
implies  is  one  which  can  best  be  dispelled  by 
increased  familiarity  with  the  service  itself. 
Though  to  an  occasional  attendant  it  may 
sometimes  appear  that  the  Church  has  sacrificed 
to  her  love  of  uniformity  the  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  constant  change  and  variety,  the 
regular  worshipper  ere  long  discovers  that  this 
is  so  far  from  being  the  case  in  reality,  that 
although  the  Church  has  two  appointed  services 
for  every  day  in  the  year,  no  two  of  these  are 
ever  alike,  nearly  half  of  each  service  varying 
from  day  to  day  ;  he  furthermore  discovers  that 
so  great  is  the  prominence  given  to  the  Bible 
in  the  Church's  order  of  service  (compared,  e.g., 
with  that  of  any  other  body  of  Christians  out- 
side her),  that  whilst  the  greater  part  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  read  once,  the  New  Testament  is 
read  no  less  than  twice,  in  the  course  of  each 
year. 

There  is  still  a  third  objection  to  the  Church 
which,  alike  from  its  prevalence  and  its  impor- 
tance, is  deserving  of  our  consideration  to-night. 
There  are  many  who  would  perhaps  be  willing 


42 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


to  admit  that  the  Church  teaches  nothing 
directly  contrary  to  Scripture,  who  would  never- 
theless feel  scruples  as  to  whether  she  has  not 
added  to  the  teaching  of  Scripture  doctrines 
which,  to  say  the  least,  cannot  be  certainly 
proved  therefrom.  As  an  instance  of  what  they 
mean,  they  would  point  to  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  in  regard  to  Confirmation,  and  ask, 
"  How  is  it  possible  to  reconcile  the  importance 
which  the  Church  attaches  to  Confirmation  as  a 
means  whereby  the  Holy  Spirit  may  be  re- 
ceived, with  the  comparatively  few  references 
which  are  to  be  found  to  it  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment ?  "  To  answer  such  a  question  at  all  fully 
would  require  a  much  longer  consideration  than 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  give  to  it  now.  Though 
we  are  very  far  indeed  from  admitting  that  the 
principle  of  Confirmation  is  not  to  be  found  in 
the  New  Testament,  let  us  suppose  for  a  moment 
that  such  were  the  case ;  how,  then,  should  we 
deal  with  the  objection  that  the  Church  has 
added  to  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament 
that  which,  on  this  assumption,  is  incapable  of 
being  proved  therefrom.  The  answer  which  we 
would  make  is  briefly  this.  Whether  or  not  any 
reasonable  doubt  can  arise  as  to  the  existence 


Objections  to  the  Church. 


43 


of  Confirmation  before  the  writing  of  the  New 
Testament  was  completed,  no  doubt  whatever 
exists  that  within  a  century  of  that  time  Con- 
firmation was  regularly  taught  and  practised  in 
the  Early  Church.  Thus  Tertullian,  who  wrote 
before  the  end  of  the  second  century,  says, 
"The  hand  is  laid  upon  us  in  benediction 
invoking  and  inviting  the  Holy  Ghost  .  .  .  then 
that  most  Holy  Spirit  comes  down  willingly 
from  the  Father  upon  the  bodies  which  have 
been  cleansed  and  blessed."  1  To  give  but  one 
more  illustration,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  who 
was  born  within  about  fifty  years  of  the  death 
of  St.  John,  not  only  speaks  of  Confirmation  as 
existing  in  his  own  day,  but  clearly  implies  that 
it  had  so  existed  even  from  the  very  start  of 
the  Christian  Church.2  Had  we  time  we  might 
go  on  to  show  that  Confirmation,  in  no  essential 
respect  different  from  that  which  our  Church 
teaches  to-day,  was  both  taught  and  practised 
throughout  the  whole  Church,  scattered  as  it 
was  throughout  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  No 
one,  probably,  who  has  studied  the  works  of  the 

1  Tert.  de  Baptismo,  §  5. 

2  Cf.  "  Relation  of  Confirmation  to  Baptism,"  A.  J.  Mason, 
p.  269. 


44  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


early  Christian  writers  would  deny  that  the 
custom  of  Confirmation,  whether  apart  from  or 
in  connection  with  baptism,  was  thus  unani- 
mously accepted  in  early  time  ;  nor,  again,  would 
any  one  be  disposed  to  deny  that  the  doctrine 
of  Confirmation  is  one  which  has  a  most  direct 
and  important  bearing  upon  the  Christian  life. 
If,  therefore,  we  adopt  the  conclusion  that  this 
doctrine  of  Confirmation  is  an  addition  to 
Scripture,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Christ's 
teaching,  let  us  at  any  rate  clearly  understand 
what  such  a  conclusion  involves.  We  believe, 
on  the  authority  of  the  New  Testament,  that 
before  Christ  left  the  world  He  made  a  distinct 
promise  to  His  followers  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
should  be  given  to  guide  them  into  all  truth. 
If,  therefore,  the  doctrine  of  Confirmation  be 
contrary  to  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  we  are  forced 
to  accept  the  conclusion  that,  so  far  from  this 
promise  having  been  fulfilled,  the  whole  Christian 
Church,  for  a  space  of  fifteen  hundred  years,  was 
guided  into  distinct  error  on  one  of  the  most 
important  possible  questions  connected  with  its 
life  and  organization.  Within  recent  years  there 
have  been,  as  we  know,  many  attempts  made 
to  cast  doubt  upon  the  inspiration  and  truth  of 


Objections  to  the  Church, 


45 


the  Bible,  but  surely  no  argument  derived  from 
supposed  historical  or  scientific  misstatements 
would  be  half  so  fatal  to  its  claims  as  the  argu- 
ment which  this  conclusion  as  to  the  non-fulfil- 
ment of  Christ's  own  promise  must  necessarily 
supply.  The  admission  that  on  so  vital  a  point 
as  the  means  by  which  the  Holy  Spirit  might 
be  obtained,  the  whole  Church  had  been  allowed 
to  lapse  into  complete  error,  would  indeed  pro- 
vide an  argument  against  the  inspiration  of  the 
New  Testament  to  which  no  apology  for  Chris- 
tianity that  has  ever  been  written  could  furnish 
a  reply. 

Finally,  in  regard  to  the  objections  which  we 
have  already  considered,  and  others  which  may 
from  time  to  time  be  suggested,  we  cannot  do 
better  than  repeat  the  suggestion  of  Bishop 
Beveridge,  in  view  of  the  objections  to  the 
Church  current  in  his  own  day :  "  Let  any  one 
that  hath  a  due  sense  of  religion,  and  a  real 
desire  of  happiness,  make  trial  of  our  Church 
but  for  one  year;  let  him  constantly  read  the 
Scriptures  in  the  method  that  she  prescribes  ; 
let  him  constantly  use  the  Common  Prayer 
according  to  her  directions  ;  let  him  observe  all 
her  Fasts  and  Holy  Days  ;  let  him  receive  the 


46 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


sacrament  as  often  as  she  is  ready  to  administer 
it,  and  perform  whatever  else  she  hath  been 
pleased  to  command.  Let  any  man,  I  say,  do 
this,  and  then  let  him  be  against  our  Church,  if 
he  can.  I  am  confident  he  cannot.  But  our 
misery  is  that  none  of  those  who  are  out  of  the 
Church,  and  few  of  those  who  are  in  it,  will 
make  the  experiment,  and  that  is  the  reason 
why  the  one  is  so  violent  against  her,  and  the 
other  so  indifferent  to  her." 


V. 


DIFFERENCES  WITHIN  THE 
CHURCH. 

"Christ  also  loved  the  Church,  and  gave  Himself  for  it." — 
Eph.  v.  25. 

In  discussing  last  week  "Objections  to  the 
Church,"  we  were  concerned  with  difficulties 
which  were  in  no  way  peculiar  to  the  present 
time,  but  such  as  might  have  suggested  them- 
selves to  an  imperfectly  instructed  Churchman 
at  almost  any  period  ;  to-day  we  shall  be  con- 
cerned with  one  which  is  more  directly  suggested 
by  the  present  condition  of  the  English  Church. 
It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  travel  at  all 
extensively  in  England,  or  even  to  visit  several 
churches  in  succession  in  any  large  town,  with- 
out becoming  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  teach- 
ing which  he  hears  in  each  place  is  very  far  from 
being  absolutely  identical.    A  careful  study  of 


48         The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


such  teaching  as  he  would  be  likely  to  meet 
with,  would  gradually  impress  upon  him  the 
conviction  that  there  were  no  less  than  three 
distinct  types  of  thought  and  methods  of  teach- 
ing, each  represented  by  a  comparatively  large 
body  of  adherents,  all,  notwithstanding  their 
differences  of  opinion,  claiming  to  be  members 
of  one  and  the  same  Church.  The  difficulty 
would,  no  doubt,  present  itself  to  his  mind, 
"  How  can  these  differences  within  the  Church 
be  reconciled  with  its  claim  to  be  one  undivided 
body  ;  do  they  not,  in  fact,  constitute  an  in- 
superable argument  against  the  validity  of  such 
claim  ?  " 

The  difficulty  which  this  question  suggests 
will  form  the  subject  for  our  consideration  to- 
night. Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  eccen- 
tricities of  teaching  and  practice  on  the  part 
of  unworthy  members,  the  responsibility  for 
which  the  Church  would  neither  claim  nor 
accept,  there  are,  as  we  have  suggested,  three 
distinct  schools  of  thought  so  largely  repre- 
sented, that  the  Church  could  not,  even  if  she 
would,  disclaim  all  responsibility  for  their 
teaching.  There  are  three  expressions  in 
common  use  which,  though  to  a  large  extent 


Differences  within  the  Church.  49 


meaningless  and  unsuitable,  will  still  serve  to 
give  us  a  rough  idea  of  what  is  meant  by  these 
three  schools  of  thought.  The  expressions  are 
High  Church,  Low  Church,  and  Broad  Church. 
A  brief  review  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of 
England  from  the  time  that  these  expressions 
came  to  be  first  used,  will,  I  think,  enable  us 
to  grasp  the  significance  of  the  expressions 
themselves,  and  at  the  same  time  to  understand 
the  relative  importance  of  the  schools  of  thought 
to  which  they  are  usually  applied.  Such  a  re- 
view will  extend  over  about  one  hundred  and 
thirty  years. 

Seldom,  or  never,  in  the  past  history  of  our 
Church  had  religion  reached  so  low  an  ebb 
as  about  the  middle  of  last  century  ;  to  us 
who  live  in  far  brighter  and  happier  days  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  realize  the  state  of 
religion  throughout  the  country  little  more  than 
a  century  ago.  Immorality  and  irreligion 
threatened  indeed  to  sweep  away  the  very 
foundations  of  society ;  no  Sunday  schools  as 
yet  existed,  no  Bible  Society  nor  Home  Missions 
had  been  established,  no  system  of  national 
education  had  been  conceived,  the  slave-trade 
continued  unchecked.     So  great  was  the  dis- 


50  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 

regard  of  religious  ordinances,  that  we  find  the 
Bishop  of  Oxford  (Seeker)  suggesting  to  the 
clergy  of  his  diocese  the  desirability  of  having 
one  celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion  be- 
tween Whitsun  Day  and  Christmas.  A  darkness 
which  might  be  felt  brooded  over  the  land. 
Then  it  was  that  in  the  providence  of  God  there 
suddenly  burst  forth  from  several  different 
centres  within  the  Church  a  stream  of  light 
which  was  destined  never  to  be  extinguished 
till  the  darkness  which  it  came  to  dispel  had 
passed  away,  we  trust  to  return  no  more. 

We  cannot  stop  to  trace  even  in  briefest  outline 
the  history  of  the  great  revival,  which,  begin- 
ning about  thirty  years  before  the  close  of  last 
century,  continued  to  increase  and  gain  strength 
till  the  end  of  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  pre- 
sent century ;  we  can  but  just  mention  the 
names  of  two  or  three  of  those  to  whom,  under 
God,  the  movement  was  due — names  such  as 
Wesley,  Whitefield,  Fletcher  of  Madeley  (whom 
Voltaire  at  once  named  when  challenged  to  pro- 
duce a  character  which  he  regarded  as  perfect 
as  that  of  Christ),  and,  passing  on  into  the  pre- 
sent century,  Newton,  Romaine,  Venn,  Scott, 
and  Simeon.    The  names  as  they  pass  before 


Differences  within  the  Church.  51 

us  in  honoured  review  may  at  least  serve  to 
recall  the  main  outlines  of  the  teaching  by 
which  the  movement  itself  was  characterized. 
The  value  of  the  individual  soul,  justification 
by  faith  alone,  the  need  of  repentance  and  con- 
version,— these  were  the  doctrines  which  formed 
as  it  were  the  watchwords  of  the  great  revival. 
The  doctrines  themselves  were  in  no  sense  new, 
having  been  expressed  for  centuries  in  the 
Liturgy  and  Articles  of  the  Church,  but  during 
the  decline  of  religion  and  the  general  neglect 
of  Church  teaching  they  had  been  to  a  large 
extent  lost  sight  of  and  forgotten.  It  was 
the  directness  of  the  appeal  to  the  individual 
conscience,  and  the  sense  of  personal  sin 
and  personal  responsibility  which  was  thereby 
aroused,  that  gave  to  the  Evangelical  Revival 
its  wonderful  power,  but  it  was  the  exclusiveness 
of  this  appeal  which  proved  the  secret  of  its  final 
decline.  For  there  came  a  time  in  the  history 
of  the  movement  when  men  began  to  realize 
that,  important  as  this  teaching  in  regard  to  the 
salvation  of  the  individual  was,  it  was,  after 
all,  but  half  the  truth.  They  came  to  realize 
more  and  more  that  a  large  portion  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  especially  of  the  Epistles,  is 


52         The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


concerned  not  so  much  with  the  salvation  of 
the  individual  as  with  the  redemption  and 
sanctification  of  a  Church.  It  was  to  a  feeling 
such  as  this,  and  to  men  who  had  been  trained 
to  a  large  extent  under  the  influence  of  the 
earlier  revival,  that  the  second,  which  is  some- 
times called  the  Catholic  Revival,  was  due. 
The  truths  which  were  then  brought  to  light, 
and  which,  though  expressed  or  implied  in  the 
Prayer-book,  had  been  for  a  time  forgotten, 
were  those  relating  to  the  corporate  life  and 
the  common  worship  of  the  Church,  and  to  her 
divinely  instituted  sacraments  as  the  bond  of 
union  of  the  former  and  the  highest  expression 
of  the  latter.  The  second  revival  in  no  way 
implied  the  abandonment  or  depreciation  of 
the  special  truths  which  it  had  been  the  object 
of  the  first  to  proclaim  ;  so  far,  indeed,  was  this 
from  being  the  case,  that  the  very  success  of 
the  Catholic  revival  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  Evangelical  had  preceded  it.  For  the 
further  and  higher  truths  which  relate  to  the 
life  of  a  society  could  only  be  grasped  by  those 
who  had  understood  and  accepted  the  truths 
which  relate  to  the  life  of  the  individual  soul. 
To  this  second  revival,  which  began  about  1835, 


Differences  within  the  Church. 


S3 


and  is  especially  connected  with  the  names  of 
Pusey,  Newman,  Keble,  and  Hook,  we  are  in- 
debted not  simply  for  bringing  to  light  forgotten 
truth,  but  for  the  increased  spirit  of  reverence 
which  has  made  itself  felt  in  almost  every 
Church  in  the  land,  even  where  the  teaching 
has  differed  most  widely  from  that  which 
especially  characterized  the  movement  itself. 
The  careless  and  irreverent  services  which  are 
to  be  met  with  to-day  in  a  few  isolated  in- 
stances may  well  serve  to  accentuate  our 
gratitude  towards  a  movement  to  which,  under 
God,  it  is  mainly  due  that  what  but  fifty  years 
ago  were  the  general  rule  have  now  become 
the  rare  and  rapidly  vanishing  exceptions. 

We  have  so  far  endeavoured  to  point  out 
the  chief  characteristics  of  the  first  two  move- 
ments within  the  Church  of  England,  to  which 
the  terms  Low  Church  and  High  Church  are 
not  infrequently  applied,  and  have  seen  how  the 
second,  without  losing  sight  of  the  teaching 
which  characterized  the  first,  led  men  on  to  the 
knowledge  of  truths  wider  and  more  important 
than  the  first,  in  proportion  as  the  interests  of  a 
society  are  wider  and  more  important  than  those 
of  any  individual  member  of  the  same.  There 


54 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


still  remains  for  our  consideration  the  school  to 
which,  especially  in  more  recent  time,  the  name 
Broad  Church  has  often  been  applied.  This 
last  movement,  which  is  especially  associated 
with  the  names  of  Arnold,  Maurice,  Robertson, 
Kingsley,  and  Stanley,  began  to  make  itself 
felt  within  but  a  few  years  of  the  rise  of  the 
second,  and  has  continued  to  exist  side  by  side 
with  it  ever  since.  The  time  when  the  move- 
ment first  took  definite  shape  was  a  time  of 
great  political  and  social  unrest  ;  suggestions 
for  the  reconstitution  of  society,  the  redress  of 
social  grievances,  and  the  forcible  redistribu- 
tion of  wealth  were  increasing  in  number  and 
urgency,  whilst  the  influence  that  the  Church 
seemed  capable  of  bringing  to  bear  upon  the 
world  outside  appeared  to  be  as  steadily  de- 
creasing. The  men  on  whom  the  leadership  of 
the  movement  devolved  felt  that  one  of  the 
greatest  dangers  which  threatened  the  existence 
of  religion  amongst  them  was  the  increasing 
tendency  to  separate,  as  by  an  impassable 
barrier,  things  secular  from  things  religious, 
thereby  allowing  men  to  suppose  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  had  no  direct  concern  with, 
and  no  message  to  deliver  to,  the  opposing 


Differences  ivitJiin  the  Church. 


55 


factions  by  which  she  was  surrounded.  Their 
desire  was,  first  of  all,  by  breaking  down  the 
imaginary  barrier  which  seemed  to  separate  the 
interests  of  the  Church  and  the  people,  to  claim 
for  the  former  a  voice  in  all  that  concerned  the 
welfare  and  improvement  of  the  latter ;  and, 
secondly,  to  assert,  both  by  teaching  and  action, 
that  the  universal  brotherhood  taught  by  Christ, 
which  was  to  be  coextensive  with  the  whole 
human  race,  offered  the  one  only  solution  to  the 
great  social  problems  of  their  own  as  of  all 
preceding  ages.  But,  though  the  leaders  of 
the  movement  were  perhaps  in  some  instances 
unduly  fearful  lest  men's  minds  should  be  dis- 
tracted by  questions  relating  to  their  individual 
salvation,  or  by  those  relating  even  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Church,  from  those  still  wider  issues 
which  affected  society  at  large,  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  for  assuming  that  the  Broad  Church 
movement  either  was  or  is  incompatible  with 
either  of  the  other  two,  nor  does  the  acceptance 
of  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  first  involve  the 
rejection  of  any  of  the  essential  truths  to  which 
the  latter  witnessed.  Rather  is  it  the  case  that 
a  more  careful  study  of  the  history  of  the  past 
will  serve  to  convince  us  that  we  could  ill  have 


$6 


The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


spared  any  one  of  the  three.  We  need  them 
all,  and  we  need  them  in  the  order  in  which 
the  providence  of  God  has  given  them  to  us. 

Whilst,  then,  we  may  thank  God  with  grateful 
hearts  for  the  clear  and  emphatic  witness  which 
our  Church  has  borne  to  the  necessity  of  re- 
pentance and  conversion,  as  illustrated  by  the 
Evangelical  revival,  and  whilst  at  the  same  time 
we  gladly  recognize  and  accept  her  further  teach- 
ing as  to  the  privileges  and  responsibilities 
which  are  ours  as  members  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
as  emphasized  in  the  second  or  Catholic  revival, 
we  cannot  but  praise  God  for  the  distinctive 
truths  relating  to  His  purpose  towards  the  world 
and  all  its  manifold  life  revealed  through  His 
Church,  which  this  last  revival  has  been  per- 
mitted to  bring  forward  and  to  teach. 

So  far,  then,  is  it  from  being  the  case  that 
the  "  Differences  within  the  Church,"  which  we 
have  been  considering  to-day,  afford  an  argu- 
ment against  the  validity  of  its  claims,  that  the 
threefold  response  which  its  teaching  is  thus 
seen  to  afford  to  the  wants  and  aspirations  of 
the  individual,  of  the  society,  and  of  the  world, 
provides  on  its  behalf  one  of  the  strongest  argu- 
ments it  were  possible  to  conceive. 


Differences  wit  kin  the  Church.  57 


To  sum  up,  then,  the  thoughts  suggested  by 
our  subject  to-night,  a  right  appreciation  of  the 
differences  to  be  met  with  in  our  Church  at  the 
present  time  will  result,  not  in  an  endeavour  on 
our  part  to  minimize  those  differences  or  to 
regard  them  as  of  but  slight  importance,  but 
rather  in  a  frank  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
truth  is  far  too  vast  to  be  grasped  by  any 
individual  mind,  and  at  the  same  time  in  a  more 
earnest  attempt  to  seize  for  ourselves  the  special 
lessons  which  these  very  differences  were  in- 
tended to  teach. 


VI. 


UNITY— IS  IT  POSSIBLE?    HOW  MAY 
IT  BEST  BE  ATTAINED? 

"  I  pray  ...  for  them  also  which  shall  believe  on  Me  .  .  . 
that  they  all  may  be  one  .  .  .  that  the  world  may  believe." 
— St.  John  xvii.  20,  21. 

The  title  of  the  subject  which  we  are  to  con- 
sider to-night  is,  "  Unity — is  it  possible  ?  How 
may  it  best  be  attained  ?  "  The  two  questions 
are  so  far  related  the  one  to  the  other,  that 
upon  the  answer  which  we  are  led  to  make  to 
the  former,  must  obviously  depend  that  which 
is  to  be  given  to  the  latter.  If,  in  view  of  the 
deeply  rooted  and  widespread  dissensions  in  the 
Church  of  Christ,  we  should  be  led  to  conclude 
that  unity  is  nothing  more  than  a  pious  aspira- 
tion or  a  beautiful  dream,  it  would  be  obviously 
useless  to  devote  attention  to  any  particular 


Unity — is  it  Possible?  59 


proposal  for  its  realization.  How,  then,  are  we 
to  arrive  at  an  answer  to  the  first  question,  Is 
Unity  possible?  May  we  not  say  that  an  an- 
swer, the  most  authoritative  and  final  which 
could  be  given,  is  contained  for  us  in  the  very 
words  of  our  text  ?  The  words  form  part  of  a 
great  Intercessory  Prayer  uttered  by  Christ  in 
the  presence  of  His  disciples  on  the  last  night 
before  His  death.  Looking  forward  into  the 
future  which  lay  before  His  Church,  He  prays 
(both  for  those  who  were  already  His  followers, 
and  for  those  who  should  eventually  believe  as 
the  result  of  their  work),  not  that  they  may 
be  taken  out  of  the  world,  but  that  they  may 
be  kept  from  the  evil  of  the  world ;  and  then, 
as  in  the  words  of  our  text,  He  asks  that  they 
may  all  be  one,  and  that  through  the  realiza- 
tion of  their  unity  the  outside  world  may  be 
brought  to  believe.  Remembering,  then,  by 
whom  this  prayer  was  uttered,  and  its  express 
reference  to  the  future  of  the  Christian  Church, 
can  we  bring  ourselves  to  believe  that  Christ 
was  here  praying  for  that  which  He  knew  could 
never  be  fulfilled  ?  It  is  surely  impossible  to 
admit  such  a  suggestion  even  for  a  moment ; 
and  if  so,  it  is  to  the  same  extent  impossible 


66 


The  ChtrcJi  and  her  Teaching. 


to  accept  the  conclusion,  no  matter  how  strongly 
existing  facts  might  seem  to  support  it,  that 
the  unity  of  the  Christian  Church  is  incapable 
of  realization. 

Passing  on,  then,  to  the  second  part  of  our 
question,  How  may  Unity  be  best  attained?  there 
are  three  different  suggestions  which  have  from 
time  to  time  been  made,  and  which  are  worthy 
of  being  considered  by  us. 

The  first,  the  simplest  of  the  three,  is  this — 
that  inasmuch  as  it  is  hopeless  to  reconcile  or 
remove  the  differences  which  separate  Christians 
from  one  another,  we  should  simply  agree  to 
differ,  and  whilst  carefully  refraining  from  inter- 
fering with  each  other's  creed,  should  confine 
our  attention  to  those  whose  opinions  are 
identical  with  our  own.  Is  not,  however,  the 
admission  that  there  is  nothing  better  for  us 
than  to  agree  to  differ,  virtually  equivalent  to 
an  admission  that,  as  far  at  any  rate  as  we  are 
ourselves  concerned,  the  fulfilment  of  Christ's 
prayer  is  an  impossibility  ?  For  His  prayer, 
uttered  as  it  was  on  behalf  of  ourselves,  as  well 
as  of  all  other  Christians,  alike  in  the  present 
and  in  the  past,  was  not  that  His  followers 
should  agree  to  differ,  but  that  they  should 


Unity — is  it  Possible?  61 


agree  to  unite  ;  nay,  more,  that  their  union  one 
with  another  might  be  as  close  as  the  union 
between  Himself  and  the  Father.  To  agree  to 
differ  on  points  of  such  vital  moment  as  many 
of  those  are  which  separate  the  various  Chris- 
tian bodies  from  each  other,  would  mean  to 
agree  to  regard  as  non-essential  some  of  the 
most  fundamental  articles  of  the  Christian  faith. 
A  unity  so  obtained  would  be  as  ineffective  as 
it  would  be  unreal. 

The  second  suggestion,  one  to  which  we  have 
already  alluded,  is  perhaps  the  commonest  and 
most  plausible  of  ail  which  have  been  made. 
It  would  find  expression  in  words  such  as 
these:  "Seeing  that  a  large  number  of  the  dif- 
ferences which  separate  professing  Christians 
from  one  another  relate  to  matters  which  are, 
after  all,  of  but  minor  importance,  would  it  not 
be  possible  to  put  these  differences  on  one  side, 
and  accept  as  a  basis  of  agreement,  and  so  of 
unity,  those  points  on  which  all  Christians  are, 
agreed  ? "  The  two  objections  which,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  are  fatal  to  the  acceptance 
of  this  proposal  are,  first,  the  verdict  of  past 
experience  is  clear  and  unmistakable  that  an 
attempt  to  promote   union  on  such  a  basis, 


62  The  Church  and  lier  Teaching. 


whatever  the  momentary  result  may  appear  to 
be,  means  eventually  the  addition  of  one  to  the 
three  hundred  or  more  already  existing  de- 
nominations, a  large  number  of  which  actually 
started  by  calling  themselves  undenominational. 
The  second  and  still  more  fatal  objection  is, 
that  to  agree  to  put  aside  even  for  a  moment, 
or  to  regard  as  unimportant,  the  points  in 
dispute,  would  involve  the  abandonment  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  New  Testament,  for  there 
is  scarcely  any  important  or  distinctive  truth 
which  is  not  controverted  by  one  or  more 
of  the  three  hundred  existing  denominations. 
Better  would  it  be  to  abandon  all  hope  of  unity 
in  despair,  than  seek  to  secure  such  a  superficial 
unity  by  the  compromise  of  truth. 

There  is,  however,  still  a  third  method  which 
it  is  possible  to  suggest  whereby  unity  amongst 
Christians  might  be  secured.  Instead  of  en- 
deavouring to  discover  the  small  residue  of  truth 
which  all  alike  agree  to  hold,  may  we  not  rather 
go  back  to  the  time  before  any  of  these  three 
hundred  denominations  came  into  existence,  and 
agree  to  hold  the  truth  which  Christians  held  in 
common  for  so  many  centuries  before  all  our 
unhappy  divisions  occurred  ? .  We  need  remain 


Unity — is  it  Possible?  63 

in  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  what  such  common 
belief  was,  for  in  the  good  providence  of  God 
there  have  been  preserved  to  us  works  of 
Christian  writers  without  a  single  break  of  even 
as  much  as  twenty  years  from  the  time  when 
the  New  Testament  was  completed  for  several 
succeeding  centuries.  If,  therefore,  we  believe 
in  any  degree  whatever  in  the  fulfilment  of 
Christ's  promise  to  His  followers  that  the  Spirit 
should  be  given  to  guide  them  into  all  truth,  we 
are  surely  wise  in  looking  to  the  time  when  the 
voice  of  Christendom  was  still  unanimous,  in 
order  to  discover  what  that  form  of  doctrine  was 
which  the  whole  undivided  Church  was  led  by 
the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  adopt.  It  is 
quite  true  that  during  the  comparative  darkness 
of  the  Middle  Ages  doctrines  were  taught  and 
practices  introduced  which  we  believe  to  have 
been  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament 
and  of  early  Christianity ;  but  our  Church,  so 
far  from  denying  this,  expressly  recognized  the 
fact  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  the  principle 
on  which  she  then  acted  being  to  reject  every- 
thing which  could  not  be  shown  to  be  in  accord- 
ance with  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament  as 
interpreted  by  the  early  undivided  Christian 


64  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 


Church.  In  looking  forward  into  the  future, 
and  in  view  of  the  steadily  increasing  number 
of  sects  and  denominations  in  our  midst,  we 
believe  that  the  only  means  by  which  any  unity 
worthy  of  the  name  can  be  secured,  is  by  the 
recognition  of  the  principle  to  which  we  have 
just  referred,  which  involves  the  acceptance  of 
all  doctrines  which  can  either  be  proved  directly 
from  the  New  Testament,  or  which,  being  in  no 
wise  contrary  to  its  spirit,  can  be  shown  to  have 
been  accepted  by  the  whole  Christian  Church 
prior  to  the  time  when  its  first  divisions  arose. 
The  acceptance  of  this  principle,  whilst  it  will 
prevent  the  Churchman  from  surrendering,  even 
for  the  sake  of  securing  apparent  unity,  the  very 
smallest  portion  of  the  truth  which  he  has  re- 
ceived as  a  legacy  from  his  forefathers,  will  in 
no  way  prevent  his  appreciating  the  good  which 
he  may  see  in  others,  no  matter  how  widely 
they  differ  from  himself.  Nay,  the  more  fully 
he  understands  the  teaching  of  his  own  Church, 
the  more  capable  will  he  be  of  recognizing  the 
distorted  fragments  of  that  teaching  which  he 
may  find  elsewhere.  Instead  of  regard ;ng  as 
his  enemies  those  who  disagree  with  him,  or 
spending  his  time  in  denouncing  their  errors,  he 


Unity — is  it  Possible  ? 


65 


will  thank  God  for  the  earnestness  and  self- 
denial  which  he  sees  outside  the  Church  no  less 
than  for  that  which  he  sees  within  it.  Nor, 
again,  will  his  sympathies  be  confined  merely  to 
his  own  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church,  or  to 
those  who  have  separated  themselves  therefrom  ; 
he  will  sympathize  with  every  movement  which 
tends  to  hasten  the  reunion  of  the  Universal 
Church,  and  to  break  down  the  barriers  which 
separate  its  various  branches,  more  especially 
when  such  movement  is  connected  with  the 
quickening  into  renewed  life  the  spiritual  ener- 
gies of  any  individual  branch.  There  is,  indeed, 
scarcely  any  more  encouraging  sign  that  the 
prayer  of  Christ  for  the  unity  of  His  Church 
will  yet  be  fulfilled  than  the  desire  for  closer 
sympathy,  if  not  for  actual  reunion,  which  has 
been  manifested  within  recent  years  by  branches 
of  the  Catholic  Church  with  which  for  centuries 
we  have  had  little  or  no  intercourse.  Last  year 
it  was  my  privilege  to  be  sent  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  in  response  to  an  appeal  which 
had  been  received  from  the  Armenian  Church 
in  Cilicia  and  Cappadocia  (the  scene,  as  you 
will  remember,  of  some  of  St.  Paul's  earliest 
labours),  asking  that  teachers  might  be  sent 

F 


66  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 

from  England  to  open  a  school  for  the  training 
of  Armenian  priests,  the  special  object  of  such 
training  being  to  fit  them  for  their  future  work 
as  teachers  and  preachers  in  their  own  Church. 
If,  as  seems  likely,  it  is  found  possible  to  pro- 
vide the  help  which  has  been  asked  for,  a  link 
of  connection  will  thus  be  established  between 
our  Church  in  England  and  one  of  the  oldest 
Churches  in  the  world,  numbering  in  all  five 
or  six  million  members,  which  will  do  more 
to  remove  misunderstandings  and  render  pos- 
sible an  approach  to  reunion  than  perhaps 
anything  which  has  taken  place  for  centuries 
past. 

What  we  need,  both  as  individuals  and  as  a 
Church,  is  to  realize  more  fully  the  surpassing 
importance  of  the  subject  of  reunion.  If,  as  we 
believe,  to  the  lack  of  Christian  unity  in  the 
past  is  due  the  continued  existence  of  heathen- 
ism in  the  world,  and  if,  as  the  words  of  our 
text  would  seem  to  imply,  the  conversion  of  the 
world  will  be  delayed  until  this  unity  be  attained, 
it  follows  that  there  is  no  subject  which  can 
possibly  engage  our  attention  of  such  urgent 
and  supreme  importance  as  the  subject  of 
Christian  unity.   But  some  one  is  perhaps  ready 


Unity — is  it  Possible? 


67 


to  exclaim,  "  Important  though  the  considera- 
tion of  the  subject  may  be  from  an  abstract 
point  of  view,  does  not  the  history  of  the  last 
half-century,  during  which  the  sects  and  denomi- 
nations here  in  England  have  more  than  quad- 
rupled, render  the  actual  realization  of  this 
wished-for  unity,  at  any  rate  within  our  time, 
little  short  of  impossible  ? "  Our  answer  to  such 
a  question  is,  Yes,  it  is  and  must  remain  so, 
unless  we  believe  that  what  God  has  done  in 
the  past  He  can  do  in  the  future.  Admitting 
such  to  be  the  case,  we  are  not  left  to  mere 
conjecture  as  to  how  the  unity  of  the  Christian 
Church  might  conceivably  be  accomplished. 
For  the  past  history  of  the  Church  affords  at 
least  one  example  of  the  way  in  which  the 
barriers  which  separate  men  from  one  another, 
barriers  as  seemingly  insuperable  as  those  of 
race  and  language,  suddenly  disappeared,  when 
the  descent  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  it  had  been 
a  rushing  mighty  wind,  resulted  in  the  fusion 
into  visible  unity  of  no  less  than  three  thousand 
men,  including  Parthians  and  Medes,  Cretes  and 
Arabians,  Jews  and  Gentiles.  We  believe  that 
whenever  the  unity  for  which  Christ  prayed 
comes  to  be  realized  amongst  ourselves,  it  will 


68  The  Church  and  her  Teaching. 

be  due  to  the  same  power  to  which  its  first 
realization  was  due.  Let  the  same  Spirit  descend 
as  of  old  upon  the  Church,  and  under  its  all- 
constraining  influence  the  obstacles  which  appear 
so  insuperable  to-day  will  disappear  as  suddenly 
and  as  effectually  as  they  did  of  old.  As,  then, 
we  desire  to  hasten  the  reunion  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  through  it  the  conversion  of  the 
world,  let  us  pray  both  more  earnestly  and  more 
expectantly  that  the  power  of  the  divine  Spirit 
may  be  manifested  in  our  midst  ;  and,  that  our 
prayers  be  not  contradicted  by  our  action,  let 
us  search  and  examine  ourselves  lest  the  incon- 
sistency of  our  lives,  or  our  want  of  charity  in 
dealing  with  others,  should  delay  even  for  an 
hour  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit's  power,  and 
so  involve  us  in  responsibility  for  the  existing 
discord.  To  close,  then,  with  a  single  practical 
suggestion  as  to  our  own  individual  duty,  in 
view  of  the  dissensions  amongst  Christians 
which  threaten  to  undermine  the  very  founda- 
tions of  the  faith,  we  would  say,  Be  true  to 
the  Church  of  which  in  virtue  of  your  baptism 
it  is  your  privilege  to  be  a  member,  strive  to 
understand  her  teaching  more  thoroughly,  mis- 
represent her  not  by  running  into  extremes, 


Unity-— is  it  Possible?  69 


pray  for  her,  labour  for  her,  and  you  will  thereby 
do  more  to  bring  about  the  unity  for  which 
Christ  prayed,  and,  through  it,  the  conversion 
of  the  world,  than  in  any  other  way  it  were 
possible  to  suggest. 


THE  END. 


PRINTED  BV  WILLIAM  CLOWES  AND  SONS,  LIMITED, 


1012  01009  2569 


